


Wrapped Around You

by Froggy1988



Series: Cassarian Advent Calendar 2020 [18]
Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Cassarian Advent Calender 2020 (Disney), Day 18, F/M, Nightmares, artwork
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:22:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28147533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Froggy1988/pseuds/Froggy1988
Summary: Cassandra finds Varian asleep at his desk. He's been avoiding her, and there are misunderstandings between themFeaturing artwork by Watazuki
Relationships: Cassandra/Varian (Disney: Tangled)
Series: Cassarian Advent Calendar 2020 [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035303
Comments: 10
Kudos: 24





	Wrapped Around You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [watazuki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/watazuki/gifts).



> Thank you again for Watazuki who has let me build a story around her sketch.

Cassandra sighed as she looked at her husband, his head down on the desk. 

“Varian.” She ran her fingers through his hair, noting that it was unwashed, and that his chin was showing several days of stubble. She looked at the dark circles beneath his eyes, the chapped lips, she even thought his face seemed thinner than usual. How long had this been going on for? How long had it gone by without her noticing? Too caught up in the movements and changes of her own pregnant body.

“Varian.” She said again, this time louder, and this time he blinked wearily in the dull light. “Come to bed Varian.”  
  


“Cassandra? Where am I?” He said looking around dazed.

“You’re in the Demanitus chamber.”  
  


“Is it morning?”  
  


“No. It’s about midnight.”  
  


“Then why aren’t you at home?” He said coming to a bit more and taking her hand. “You need your rest Cass.”  
  


“So do you.” She said tugging on his arm, beseeching him to stand. He got unsteadily to his feet. “Did you think I wouldn’t notice that you’re not sleeping?”

  
“I am sleeping, just… at odd hours.” The last part of the sentence sounded strange and hesitant, and Cassandra had to wonder if he was lying to her. “Look.” He said nodding his head. Cassandra followed his gaze and saw a small bundle of blankets and pillows raised up off the stone floor on old apple crates.

“You’ve been sleeping here?” She asked startled. “Why?”  
  


“Oh, I just uh… I didn’t want to disturb you with my coming and going at all hours of the night. I thought I’d just stay here, just for the time being.”

“You could have asked for a room in the castle.”  
  


“Oh, I have one.” Varian said nervously, looking down. “Just, I prefer it here.”

“Here, where it’s cold? And full of broken equipment and bats.”  
  


“The bats are quite nice to watch actually, peaceful. The droppings can be a problem though.”  
  


Cassandra put her hands on her hips and stared at him. It was time to put her foot down. It had been years since Varian had acted with such disregard for his own health, this was more like teenage Varian, not the man in his mid-twenties that she’d married.

“You!” She said poking him in the chest. “Are coming to sleep in a proper bed, for a proper amount of time, and you are not coming back down here until you have eaten a proper meal, showered and shaved.”  
  


Varian hung his head down in a weary doleful manner, letting out a deep sigh.

“Okay, sorry.”

She reached for his hand and led him up out of the chamber. It wasn’t until they reached the corridors of the staff chambers that she noticed him slowing and acting strange again. He turned to her as he reached the door of his room.

“You know, the air down here is a bit damp, and the beds are a little ungiving. Perhaps you would be more comfortable upstairs in one of the guest bedrooms? I’m sure nobody would mind, and I’m likely to toss and turn all night and keep you up.”

It was then that Cassandra realised what was going on, and she felt a lump in her throat rising. She looked away and blinked a few times. Stupid pregnancy, it was making her so… well, weak, so emotional. She wrapped her arms around her middle, she wasn’t heavily pregnant, only around four months, but in the last few weeks she had noticed so many changes in her body - the body she had spent years shaping into an athletic machine, primed for duty. She couldn’t explain how something so natural could feel so unsettling, and the thought that Varian didn’t want to sleep next to her anymore, well that was even more so.

“You don’t want to share a bed with me.” She said, making sure that he wouldn’t hear the worry and upset in her voice, only a feigned sternness. Still, she couldn’t look up at him, couldn’t meet his yes as her worries were confirmed.

“No! No… I, I just thought that it would be nicer for you…”  
  


“Stop lying to me Varian. You’ve never been good at it.” She snapped looking up at him. “Do I disgust you that much?”  
  


“What no! Never, Cassie I..”  
  


“I’ve heard of some men who turned away from their wives when pregnant, but I never thought you would be one of them.” 

“I’m not.” He stepped forwards and took her by the shoulders. “Look at me. It’s not that, you’re beautiful, you’ll always be beautiful to me.”

  
“Then why have I barely seen you all week? Why haven’t you come back to the cottage? It’s been five nights since you slept with me in our bed.”  
  


Varian gave another deep sigh; he placed his hands on her shoulders. 

“I’m sorry, I guess I just thought it was easier this way. Calm down Cass, come on. I think you must be getting tired too.”

  
He opened the door and gestured to her to go through. She still wasn’t sure if she believed him, still wasn’t sure what was going on, but he was right, they both needed sleep, and she was thinking less clearly these days. Perhaps once they’d rested then they would find themselves more able to connect with each other and understand what exactly was going on between them. Because despite his denial, Cassandra knew something was wrong.

Once inside Cassandra looked around the room to see if there were any more obvious clues to what was going on with her husband, but the only sign that the room had been used was that the bed had been made with a thick duvet rather than left uncovered. They silently got undressed, Varian pulling a nightshirt from out of the wardrobe and Cassandra content to sleep in her slip. Cassandra laid on her side, facing away from him, it was as if there was a wall between them. She felt Varian’s hand hesitantly rest on her hip for a moment before a soft kiss was placed to her shoulder.

“Goodnight Cass.”

Despite their arguing Varian fell asleep almost the minute he’s head hit the pillow. Cassandra lied awake for a while listening to the change in his breathing as he fell deeper and deeper asleep. She could feel bubbles in her stomach and wondered if it was the first feelings of their child moving within her, or just some gastric uneasiness, it was hard to tell, people were always asking her if she had felt the child kicking, but she didn’t even know what that was supposed to feel like. She put her hand over her stomach, wondering for the thousandth time if the child was alright in there, if it had everything in the right place, if she was eating the right things to keep it growing. Varian had seemed so excited, maybe even more connected to the idea of the child in her body than she was. He’d been making a cot with Quirin. Well, Quirin had been carving a cot, Varian had been doing something with cogs and dials that made the cot rock back and forth. Although, he’d got the speed wrong and when Cass had seen it she’d got an overwhelming feeling of seasickness, which had turned into morning sickness, which had gummed up the gears, which at least had resulted in it being slower. 

The only thing that had been keeping her from freaking out about her impending motherhood was the knowledge that she had Varian by her side, and Varian would be a good father, but as she drifted off into a restless sleep she was feeling ill at ease.

Cassandra drifted awake, not sure at first what had woken her, and for a dazed moment not sure where she was. Then she heard the muffled shout from next to her. She turned startled, able to make out the withering form of Varian next to her in the moonlight filtering through the window. She blinked sleepily, letting the information slowly sink into her mind.

“No!” Varian muttered, his face turning towards her in the dark, his eyes scrunched up, hand reaching out into the darkness of the night in front of him.

“Varian? What is it?” Cassandra said, wearily leaning in closer to her husband. He gave a groan and his head thrashed violently from one side to the other.

“Cassandra!” He gasped.

“I’m here.” Cassandra said, her name making her leap into action, reaching for his outstretched hand, and squeezing it tightly against her chest. “Wake up Varian. It’s just a nightmare, you can wake up now. Everything is alright. I’m here. “

It took a few more moments for Varian to open his eyes with a sharp intake of breath, he almost knocked Cassandra over as he sat bolt upright, staring around panting heavily.

“It’s okay Varian.” Cassandra said softly, her hand reaching to gently trail down his back.

“Cassie?” Varian asked looking around, his eyes glinting in the darkness as they came to rest on her. He just stared at her for a moment before his face came to rest in his hands, and his knees came up to his chest. Cassandra watched as he curled up in on himself, she could feel the slight shake of the mattress as he trembled. She leaned forwards, close to him, so he could feel her presence but not quite touching him.

Everything was falling into place within her mind, his tiredness, the way he had been avoiding her. She’d heard nightmare being mentioned in passing, but in the two years of their marriage she’d never witnessed one, in fact Varian slept like the dead most of the time, not woken by the sounds of wild animals or thunderstorms. She’d thought the nightmares had passed with his teenage years, that the stability of their new life, their settled positions, their solid marriage, had left his mind peaceful. Except, perhaps things went stable, there was another person growing inside of her stomach, one that they would have to take priority over each other, one that they would make space for in their lives now and until the day they died. There was an infinite number of possibilities in her pregnancy and when the child was born, so much uncertainty that had been plaguing her mind. Shed thought Varian had adapted to the idea quickly, but what if he hadn’t?

“Talk to me.” She said into the darkness.

“Nightmares.” Came a muffled sob after a minute or two.

Cassandra was silent, giving him the time to explain as much or as little as he needed, and after another couple of harsh racking sobs he said another couple of words that explained everything.

“You, Amber.”

Cassandra pulled him towards her, he didn’t budge. So she took his arms and pulled them away from his face, her hand went up to rest in his hair and she pulled him towards her. Feeling the wetness of his tear-streaked cheeks against the skin of her shoulder as she wrapped her legs around him. After another stifled sob, his hands wearily came up to rest on her back. They were wrapped in each other now. Cassandra hoped that he would understand what she was trying to say with her embrace, she was not good at talking, but she was good at the physical things. She hoped he knew that she was there from him, that she would hold him together until he could face the world again. That she thought she understood what was going on in his mind.

That moment, the moment when she had lost control, the moment when his invention went haywire and he watched her disappear into the amber, just like with his father. The moments when she was frozen, just a few moments, but they had reminded him so much of the months he had stared up at his father’s frozen grimace not knowing if he would ever free him, blaming himself for the accident that had caused it. The links it had made in his brain. She knew that he had felt haunted for years after that event, but she didn’t know that it still affected him.

“I thought you were over it.” Cassandra muttered stroking her hand through his hair. “I thought we had forgiven each other, forgiven ourselves.”  


“So did I.” His breathing was starting to even out, his body starting to relax against her.

“This isn’t the first time this has happened, is it?”  


“About a week now. That’s why…”  
  


“That’s why you’ve been avoiding me?”

“Yes.”  
  


“But why Vare? We’re meant to face all this together. Isn’t that what we swore to each other?”  


Varian looked down, avoiding her gaze.

“You have a lot going on.” He muttered.  
  


“No, we have a lot going on. You’re allowed to have feelings about this too. You’re allowed to be scared too.”  
  


“I think I am scared Cassie.” He admitted, looking up and searching her face with a desperate expression. “I think that might be why I’m having the nightmares, back then, we barely knew each other, but you were important to me and one of my inventions… it could have really hurt you, and now, now we have so much. I have so much, because of you.” His hand reached down between them and came to rest on her stomach. “I have this, because of you.”  
  


“And the downside of having more in your life… is having more to lose.” Cassandra said gently.

“Yes.” Varian breathed.

“But you’re not going to lose me.” Cassandra said placing a small kiss on his salty lips.

“Promise me?” Varian said as he pulled her closer, burying his head once more in her shoulder.

“I promise.”

They held each other in the darkness, both understanding now, the fears were not gone, but both were made stronger by the fact that they weren’t facing them alone.

**Author's Note:**

> Tomorrow's story is ... I don't know... I haven't written it yet.


End file.
